U.S. renews campaign against Libya

By
Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Published Aug 26, 2009 3:11 PM

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi returned home to Libya Aug. 21 to a hero’s
welcome. He had been held in a Scottish prison for eight years in connection
with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21,
1988. All 259 people on board the aircraft were killed plus 11 others on the
ground.

Al-Megrahi, who has always maintained his innocence, was released on
humanitarian grounds by the Scottish authorities after he was diagnosed with
terminal prostate cancer.

This political prisoner’s release created the conditions for a renewal of
attacks on the North African state of Libya, which since 1969 has been headed
by Muammar Qaddafi, a leader with an anti-imperialist history. Qaddafi
currently serves as chairman of the African Union. Beginning with the Reagan
administration, the U.S. had for years designated Libya under Qaddafi a
“terrorist state.”

The U.S. Air Force bombed Libya, which has been a strong advocate of African
unity and socialism, on April 14, 1986. The bombings sparked outrage throughout
Africa and the world.

U.S. relations with Libya strained

After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the escalation of the U.S. so-called
“war on terror,” Washington attempted to normalize relations with
Libya in an effort to further isolate Iraq, Syria, the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, Sudan and Iran. During the period after the
U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration claimed that
Libya had agreed to dismantle and eliminate its purported “weapons of
mass destruction” in exchange for greater diplomatic recognition from
Washington and London.

In August 2003 the Libyan government agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation
to the families of the victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing. In September of the
same year, the United Nations Security Council voted to lift sanctions against
Libya.

In 2006, Washington restored full diplomatic relations with Libya, opening the
door for further economic cooperation. The country was removed from the State
Department’s list of governments that allegedly “support
terrorism.” During the final days of the Bush administration, then
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the country.

Libya has also been involved in peace negotiations surrounding the ongoing
conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.

During the course of the normalization process, U.S. and British oil firms were
allowed to resume economic relations with Libya, which is said to hold the
largest oil reserves on the African continent. Yet this apparent thawing in
relations between the U.S. and Libya has been jeopardized by the Obama
administration’s virulent statements in response to the release of
al-Megrahi and his welcoming by the Libyan government and people.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill took responsibility for making the
decision to release al-Megrahi from prison. “It is my decision that Mr.
al-Megrahi ... be released on compassionate grounds and be returned to Libya to
die,” MacAskill said. (Al-Jazeera, Aug. 21)

MacAskill told journalists, “He is a dying man; he is terminally ill. My
decision is that he returns home to die.”

Nonetheless, U.S. President Barack Obama, under pressure from the FBI and
right-wing political elements inside the country, said that the release of
Megrahi was “a mistake” and that the former political prisoner
should be held under house arrest in Libya.

In a statement issued on the eve of his release, al-Megrahi said, “As a
result of my surrender, and that judgment of the court, I had to spend over 10
years in prison. I cannot find words in my language or yours that give proper
expression to the desolation I have felt. This horrible ordeal is not ended by
my return to Libya.

“The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the
wrongness of my conviction. I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk
dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return
home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be
lifted.” (Al-Jazeera, Aug. 20)

Although the U.S. government and prosecutors have claimed that al-Megrahi was a
Libyan intelligence officer, he has been consistent in stating that he was an
airline executive at the time of the Lockerbie bombing. Evidence of guilt was
highly circumstantial and questionable. Another Libyan was also turned over
during the late 1990s for trial at a special court in the Netherlands, but he
was acquitted of the charges.

A Scottish court rejected an appeal by al-Megrahi in 2002. However, a judicial
review of his conviction in 2007 raised a number of questions in regard to the
veracity of the evidence used against him during the trial. Particular doubt
was cast on the testimony of Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who claimed that
clothing purchased in his store by al-Megrahi was found in the wreckage of Pan
Am 103.

According to Al-Jazeera, “It was suggested that Gauci may have seen a
photo of al-Megrahi in a magazine days before picking him out of
line-up.” Al-Megrahi made a decision to drop his appeal when Libya, which
has negotiated for his release over many years, reached a deal with the British
government to have him released on compassionate grounds.

Behind the agreement

With Libya serving as chair of the African Union and the imperialist countries
desiring to access Libya’s vast oil and natural gas reserves, the U.S.
and Britain have motives to further normalize relations and enhance existing
economic agreements.

These factors were raised in an interview with Seif al-Islam, the son of
Muammar Qaddafi, broadcast over Libyan television on Aug. 22. Al-Islam said
that the release of al-Megrahi was raised during talks over possible oil and
natural gas contracts between the British government and Libya.

Al-Islam described the release of al-Megrahi as “a victory” for the
people of Libya. “In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with
Britain, [Megrahi] was always on the negotiating table,” al-Islam told
the Al Mutawasit television channel.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Libya in May 2007 during the
signing of an exploration contract with the British oil firm BP for $900
million. Despite these statements by al-Islam and the signing of the 2007
contract, the British Foreign Office has insisted that the release of
al-Megrahi was the sole decision of the Scottish government and that “no
deal has been made between the UK government and the Libyan government in
relation to Megrahi and any commercial interest in the country.” (BBC,
Aug. 22)

Al-Megrahi met with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who issued a statement
saying in part: “At this moment I would like to send a message to our
friends in Scotland, the Scottish Nationalist Party, the Scottish prime
minister ... and I congratulate them on their courage and for having proved
their independence despite the unacceptable and unreasonable pressures they
faced.” (Jana, Aug. 22)

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